Gifts From Co-Workers When On Leave Fighting Cancer!

I had just started work when a co-worker began telling me how she asks for forgiveness rather than permission as she gets more done that way! Then she said, oh, I suppose I shouldn't have told my new supervisor that. She was doing her best to orient me to working for the state. We laughed!

It is a good thing to laugh and even after 15+ years and we are both retired we can laugh at that! Now that I am not her boss, it is way easier to laugh at those comments. I told her the other day that the comment worked for me then and has worked for me since then as well and I thanked her for it!

What nice and thoughtful gifts I received from co-workers throughout my time working, not to mention the gift I received when I was out of work due to cancer. Then, I got my full paycheck for most of my time off as many people donated their time to support this benefit.

In July of 2013, I received a care package from my work family. I had just completed chemotherapy and was showing no more signs of cancer.

A co-worker brought me a gift from the staff. A poetry book and the poems in the book were all very nice and thoughtful! And another journal to think about them whenever I use it. I loved the scented candle from Pier One and the beautiful gift bag that it came in.

The Mary Kay and the card were wonderful, and I could tell they knew me as I especially loved the lip colors! They were my colors!

I enjoyed the dark chocolate hot cocoa and I ate the other dark chocolate fast. My favorite! And dark chocolate is good for you and healthy right? The Bath and Bodywork bath and body lotion got used as I love that store.

Then my granddaughter worked at Caribou and I definitely spent too much time there and used the gift card pretty quickly!

The smiley-faced flower I see every morning when I wake up. I thought it would be a great way to start my day with a smile.

I love the Dalai Lama book. He was my Facebook friend and I think he is so wise! I love reading what he has to say.

One Day At A Time is one of my favorites and how I live my life!

And last but not least I loved the lemon verbena gardeners soap! I used that!

The scattering garden was beautiful that fall and summer!

Miigwech Nibawa/Thank you very much!

To The People I Love And Appreciate

I love the people I worked with most everyday

They are the most thoughtful people on a sick day

I knew it would take a while to mend

I didn't think it would be so long to get back to attend

to my job and my family and the people I owe

I wasn't even ready to ride the mower to mow

Recuperating is difficult for some and I was one

I thought it would be a few treatments and I would be done

But no, it wasn't like that at all, not that easy or small

My co-workers did a nice job without me in the winter and spring

Summer, I was back, but I was wondering about fall

Treatable not curable was what I was told that's all

So patient and kind, doing my job and holding it open to bring

me back to do the job I was hired for. I had fears I couldn't do it.

But they knew I could and maybe I worried for naught as I could sit

at a desk, or in the car or at the office, and who can't do that.

I knew most of the folks I would work with and I had a hat

for when my hair wasn't growing fast enough, then there were wigs.

Anyway, when going back to work I was ready to do jigs.

Happy to get back to co-workers and to work side by side

with the best of them. I could go to White Earth, Leech Lake on a ride

and Red Lake and St. Paul could wait for a later date.

Thanks to all of you! You are all my favorite teammate!